Moneyball
Bottom Line: Phenomenal, but don’t rent it expecting a sports drama.
Directed by: Bennett Miller
Starring: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright
Winning biodrama about Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), the general manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team in California. The team is struggling from trying to find players within the constraints of their limited budget, whereas other teams are working from big budgets with costly players. With 25-year-old newcomer Pete Brand (Jonah Hill) by his side, Billy must use his way with statistics, computer-generated analyses, firing, and trading to find the perfect lineup for the team.
In case it’s not clear within the plot, MONEYBALL isn’t a baseball film, so to speak. In fact, it’s even less a sports movie. The film is about money and how it controls how well these games are played, not the players and how they shape the outcome. (Hence the title.) The two best things about this grand slam picture may just be the lead performances. This is by far Brad Pitt’s best performance yet. We see Billy Beane not at all as a straightforward, stern manager. He’s laidback from his body language (i.e. putting his feet up on a desk when diligently making phone calls at work) to his verbal speech (if this were a two hour audio track without any visual, he could easily pass for an adolescent or a young adult). Jonah Hill is also great here. As soon as his character arrives, we know his case: he’s adamant in finance but has never played baseball. Actually, it’s a bit more than that. He went to Yale for a degree in economics, has absolutely no mind for baseball, he’s extremely reluctant to fire or trade anyone over, AND he always works as if he is the ever-faithful assistant to Billy, even when Billy skips games to work out. It’s the way he develops his character that is so astounding. Judging from a career made up of films such as THE SITTER, FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, and SUPERBAD, one would think he’s a comedian and nothing else, but his role here is completely serious and spot-on with personality.
MONEYBALL is, in a rare case, a film I would recommend to just about anyone. There may have been some missteps along the way, but if there were, I didn’t quite notice them. Maybe the one thing done wrong that I did notice was the length; it ran on about ten or fifteen minutes longer than it should have. Still, I can’t imagine anyone not enjoying this wonderful, engrossing picture. It’s surely one of the best of 2011.
I am glad you enjoyed Moneyball. I liked it a little more though. It was so subtle, deep, and well made that I didn’t notice the run time. You said it was one of the best of 2011, so I am wandering if you would kick a movie off your top 10, or put it in your honorable mentions?
I kicked Puss in Boots off my list for this one.
I found this to be an OK movie. Everything is in its right place: there’s good writing, good performances, etc. but nothing to get really excited about. I can understand all the love, though. What I absolutely cannot agree with is that it features Brad’s best performance. He’s done far better work in Jesse James, 12 Monkeys, Burn After Reading and Babel.
Maybe it’s not his best performance, but it’s easily the best I’ve seen of him thus far. I was stunned by how well he acted. I’m not familiar with who Billy Beane is (or, I should say, I wasn’t before I saw this), nor have I read the book, but he seemed convincing. Surprised you found it to be just okay. I’m not a sports person at all (in fact, I abhor watching it and try to stay out of what’s going on in the sports world), but I loved this movie and was massively entertained. I didn’t expect to like it all that much, because it’s not quite a sports movie, but it’s about baseball, somewhat. One more BP nominee to watch: Tree of Life.
Oh OK, I get it now. Then you need to see more movies with Brad Pitt. Nice to see your next one is Tree of Life. A stunning picture. I’m not a sport fan either, I don’t understand baseball or football, just soccer, basketball and swimming (which is the only one I’ve ever practiced) so I was surprised when I liked Moneyball, I just didn’t love it as much as everyone.
I’ve seen Moneyball, Benjamin Button, the Ocean’s trilogy, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and The Departed (produced by him). So yeah, I do need to see a lot more of him.
Nice review, I thought this was good but not great. It seemed they added a lot of sub plot with his annoying daughter that I could have done without. Well that and too many seens of Pitt driving around in his truck. What I did enjoy was the baseball back room aspects of the film. The attempts to make this film appeal to mainstream audiences hurt the film IMO.
scenes lol
The daughter may have been annoying, and her scenes may have dragged on, but there was a reason she was included. These people were trying to show not only how his character was affecting his business but how it was affecting the rest of the world, i.e. his family. The fact that even she was convinced that he was going to get fired and even drove him nuts about it shows that it was, in fact, a big issue. That song she sang, after one run-through, began to get on my nerves. As far as how good it was, I’m baffled by the fact that you said it was only “good”! I’m not a sports fan at all: I try to avoid it, and I don’t like watching or listening to anything having to do with it. Some notable film exceptions are The Blind Side (based on the book by the same author as this one’s source novel), the Rocky movies, Invictus, and Warrior. Moneyball really grabbed me; like I said, it’s not a sports movie, but like I said, I avoid anything sports-ish, which this was. I was stunned by how much I liked it, and if The Artist hadn’t been released/nominated, this would have been my first choice for BP, followed immediately by Midnight in Paris, The Help, and The Descendants.
I am pretty sure that song was from an old navy commercial lol
Whats wrong with good? That is a high compliment coming from me. I did not find it to be great which is a term I use sparingly.
Oh, okay. If you rarely call a film great, then I see what you mean. The word “great,” for me, has a series of definitions. Moneyball, I would never put on my top 101 list because it doesn’t quite qualify, but it was great enough as to make it to my top 10 list of 2011. By the way, I just subscribed to your website. Love it.
coolio
I’m right there with you buddy. This was one of my favorite films of last year.
So excited to see Pitt in Tree of Life. Last nominee for BP I have to see. Then, of course, I must see some more of the nominees and winners among the acting spectrum, such as Iron Lady, Beginners, Albert Nobbs, and Tinker Tailor (I think someone was nominated there, but I’d have to check.)
Gary Oldman got his long overdue FIRST nomination for Best Actor. Also got nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Original Score.
His first nomination?! Please tell me you’re kidding. He’s so great in just about every film I’ve seen him in. I wouldn’t say he deserves nomination for all of them, but there are a few I would have honored him for, had I the choice.
Yeah, it was also very surprising that his least showy role was the one that got him nominated. I would’ve loved for him to be mentioned for The Professional.
You mean Léon? I still need to see that one, and I keep forgetting about it. Watching Apollo 18 right now…you can probably guess what my thoughts are for that one. My review will be up in an hour or two, three at most.
Yeah, I meant Léon. I actually wanted to say León but confused as to whether that was the American or European title. Anyway, you should see it.
I think the title is both used in America and Europe. When you said The Professional, I didn’t know what you were talking about exactly (I had just looked up his filmography earlier today, actually), but when I looked it up and it redirected to Léon on Wikipedia, I saw that you were referring to perhaps his most-recognized work.
(Don’t you just love tangents like this? Haha)
I thought this movie was good… does not deserve an A though.
I was just surprised. Maybe if I were into the sports genre, I would have given it a lower grade. But I really enjoyed how this appealed to everyone, not just sports fanatics.
I am a big baseball fan! I guess it is just maybe a boy might like it a little better than a girl… I would have given it a B+.
never mind… I just looked at your grading scale page!
Hey! Don’t be sexist!
I see you realize I don’t use B+ but I’d say it’d be pretty easy to decide how to decide on my scale. C through B is “rent it” whereas A- through A+ is “buy it”. So rounding down would be a “rent it” notion, and rounding up would be a “buy it” notion. 